The former TNT Champion has not been seen on AEW programming since the 2025 Forbidden Door PPV. He had made his return at the show after a lengthy absence, only to be put on the shelf again with a torn pec.
Overall, the heavyweight star has not wrestled a match for over two years now. His last in-ring encounter was a bout against Samoa Joe at a March 2024 episode of Dynamite.
Now Fightful Select is reporting that Wardlow is in New York before the Double or Nothing PPV set for May 24th at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens.
The 38-year-old was also backstage at the Revolution PPV in March, but he had not been cleared for return to action at the time. He has been at several shows since then, working towards getting cleared for his in-ring return.
In an interview in April, the Ohio native had claimed that he was ‘very close to being ready,’ which makes a Double or Nothing return a lot more feasible.
The AEW star took part in the American Gladiator reboot during his absence from wrestling. The first season of the show hosted by WWE’s The Miz is now airing on Amazon Prime.
Wardlow has confirmed the reason for his long AEW absence.
The heavyweight star has been missing from the ring for over 2 years now, with his last match being a March 2024 Dynamite encounter with Samoa Joe. The 38-year-old did make a return at the 2025 Forbidden Door PPV where he joined the Don Callis Family.
He was taken off TV again, however, without wrestling any matches. Reports later came out that the AEW star had suffered a torn pec on his return segment, which would send him on another lengthy hiatus.
During a recent interview with BCP+, the wrestling star was asked to send a message to the fans who miss him. Wardlow first apologized to his fans and mentioned that he misses being in the ring, too.
The former TNT Champion noted that at this point, he is excited to get back to wrestling in front of a live crowd again in whatever role possible.
Wardlow Talks Reasons For His Absence
Wardlow then opened up about the April 2024 car accident that was the initial reason for his absence. The American star claimed that he had never taken time off from wrestling due to injury before that, and he was ready to work even in his condition after the car accident. The creative, however, then scrapped the storyline he was supposed to be involved in, and that’s when he finally decided to head home:
“The storyline that I was looking forward to for the second time got canned. I can barely walk at this point after the car accident. So I finally decided to take some time off, which was the first time ever in my career,”
The former champion also confirmed the reports about the torn pec that extended his hiatus from the ring following the Forbidden Door return. Wardlow revealed that he is very close to getting cleared for action again, reiterating that it’s the first wrestling-related injury that has forced him to take time off:
“We’re very, very close to being ready… Obviously, I’m healing up from the torn pec, which most people know about. I also wanna state, because there’s a lot of discourse online about this, about injuries, right?
This torn pec is the first injury in my entire life, indies included, that I’ve ever taken time off for wrestling. Any time you saw me absent before the car accident, any time you saw me absent was never because of an injury. It was creative or there just wasn’t anything going on at the time and I was sitting at home.”
The heavyweight star later talked about getting the opportunity to be part of the Gladiators reboot during his time off and thanked Tony Khan for his blessing to work the project.
